Mike Dee, you STILL haven't seen true Damascus steel! What we have here is pattern-welded steel. Also known as folded steel, or watered steel, it is layers of high-carbon and low-to-medium carbon steel, heated to a critical temperature, and hammered together, welding the individual layers. (Please bear in mind that this is the very simplest of explanations for the process, there are many methods and materials that can be used.) It's beautiful, no doubt, and a very tough blade material when done right. Pattern welded steel was once quite common as a way to use up leftover pieces of steel from other metalworking projects, but died out as the blacksmith was replaced by the blast furnace. This is also the type of steel that the Japanese used to produce the very finest of swords for the Samurai. Knife-maker Bill Moran rediscovered the secret of pattern welded steel in the early 1970s, for which we all owe a debt of gratitude!

TRUE Damascus steel, on the other hand, is more properly called wootz, and is produced in a similar manner to the crucible(powdered metal) steels. Raw iron powder is placed in a clay pot, along with charcoal dust, and a little bit of paper or sawdust. The pot is sealed, and placed in a kiln, or a very hot fire. As the pot heats up, the paper ignites, using up all of the free oxygen, and allowing the iron to melt and absorb the carbon from the charcoal. When the pot finally cools, the pot is broken, the steel ingot is removed and cleaned up, the forging can now begin. Unlike folded steel, there are no visible layers, the pattern you see is just on the surface, and is similar to that of a polished meteorite slice. It is a rare and unique material, quite expensive, but wootz is the steel brought back to Europe by the Crusaders. Since the center of the middle eastern civilization was the city of Damascus, the legendary blades were simply called Damascus steel. If I remember correctly, knife-maker Al Pendray was the first to produce wootz in the US, and probably the first man in the last 200 years to do so outside of a few unknown metalworkers living in the middle east.

There you have it, in 2 paragraphs, you now you know more about Damascus steel than 99.9% of the six and a half billion people on this planet. No joke.

Mike Dee, you STILL haven't seen true Damascus steel! What we have here is pattern-welded steel. Also known as folded steel, or watered steel, it is layers of high-carbon and low-to-medium carbon steel, heated to a critical temperature, and hammered together, welding the individual layers. (Please bear in mind that this is the very simplest of explanations for the process, there are many methods and materials that can be used.) It's beautiful, no doubt, and a very tough blade material when done right. Pattern welded steel was once quite common as a way to use up leftover pieces of steel from other metalworking projects, but died out as the blacksmith was replaced by the blast furnace. This is also the type of steel that the Japanese used to produce the very finest of swords for the Samurai. Knife-maker Bill Moran rediscovered the secret of pattern welded steel in the early 1970s, for which we all owe a debt of gratitude!

TRUE Damascus steel, on the other hand, is more properly called wootz, and is produced in a similar manner to the crucible(powdered metal) steels. Raw iron powder is placed in a clay pot, along with charcoal dust, and a little bit of paper or sawdust. The pot is sealed, and placed in a kiln, or a very hot fire. As the pot heats up, the paper ignites, using up all of the free oxygen, and allowing the iron to melt and absorb the carbon from the charcoal. When the pot finally cools, the pot is broken, the steel ingot is removed and cleaned up, the forging can now begin. Unlike folded steel, there are no visible layers, the pattern you see is just on the surface, and is similar to that of a polished meteorite slice. It is a rare and unique material, quite expensive, but wootz is the steel brought back to Europe by the Crusaders. Since the center of the middle eastern civilization was the city of Damascus, the legendary blades were simply called Damascus steel. If I remember correctly, knife-maker Al Pendray was the first to produce wootz in the US, and probably the first man in the last 200 years to do so outside of a few unknown metalworkers living in the middle east.

There you have it, in 2 paragraphs, you now you know more about Damascus steel than 99.9% of the six and a half billion people on this planet. No joke.

Check on gun broker. i bought 3 damascus from willscustomdamascusknives. They were fixed blade but he does folders. I was really satified with mine. great guy to do business with. About 100 a piece. I've had mine a couple years.

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